It’s World Sight Day!

World Sight Day is a day to generate awareness of preventable blindness and vision impairment world wide. It’s an important day to celebrate!

It’s important to note on World Sight Day that…

– Approximately 285 million people worldwide live with low vision and blindness
– Of these, 39 million people are blind and 246 million have moderate or severe visual impairment
– 90% of blind people live in low-income countries
– Yet 80% of visual impairment is avoidable – i.e. readily treatable and/or preventable
– Restorations of sight, and blindness prevention strategies are among the most cost-effective interventions in health care
– The number of people blind from infectious causes has greatly reduced in the past 20 years
– An estimated 19 million children are visually impaired
– About 65 % of all people who are visually impaired are aged 50 and older, while this age group comprises only 20% of the world’s population
– Increasing elderly populations in many countries mean that more people will be at risk of age-related visual impairment.

In working with Foster Grant as one of their ambassadors, I love knowing that Foster Grant does what they can to reach out and raise awareness. It’s exceptional! In 2013, Foster Grant donated 1.5 million pairs (1.5 million!) of reading glasses and sunglasses to support Restoring Vision, which is Foster Grant’s charitable partner. Restoring Vision supplies much-needed eyewear to developing countries throughout the world.

Reading glasses and sunglasses can be life-changing for people, and it’s just wonderful to see a company like Foster Grant helping out.

Bravo!